Month: May 2015

It’s like a Mad Max fairy tale. Mostly because of the location being the desert and the adults being cruel, dubiously acting monsters, not so much for the end of the world/post-apocalyptic part.

Stanley (‘Caveman’) is sent to Camp Green Lake so he doesn’t has to go to juvenile jail. There’s no green or lake at the camp, Stanley’s innocent and the only thing the teenagers do all they is dig holes. To build character, it is said.

Of course that’s not all there is to it. Stanley’s story is entwined with the story of Green Lake, giving a magic realistic feel to the story of a lost boy. There is definitely something very wrong with (almost) all the adults, giving the novel a tender us-against-the-world feeling.

Louis Sachar makes the desert sand almost heat up the pages, showing an unfriendly world with surprising allies.

I have always been a fan of Neil Gaiman. I feel like his Neverwhere was my first experience with the contemporary fantasy genre. So of course I had my eyes peeled for his latest.

At first I had to get used to the world and the story a little. It starts with a (seemingly) plain grown man, in a normal situation. When the flashbacks start, and his neighbors are introduced, is when the fantasy braids itself into every plot line. It turns into more organic, softer, flowing than I’m used to with Gaiman’s work. The world created is terrifying and beautiful and painted in otherworldly colors.

And in the center of all that it’s just a story about just a young boy that tries to grow up. Because that’s something Gaiman does nicely as well.

Since Maria had decided to die, her cat would have to fend for itself.

I was too late to watch the movie. I think I made the right decision reading the book (first).

No-one in the Soviet is safe from the system, not even those enforcing it. It all starts with the murder of a child. But murder is a crime, and crimes only happen in capitalist societies, so the protagonist has to deny it happening, naming it an accident to make it easier and safer for everyone. Of course that safety doesn’t last long.

How do you prove a crime if every authority wants it not to be one? Main character Leo and his wife quickly discover that it’s a brutal path, the communist society being another player in this detective story. The story itself is fiction, but every insane government rule or fear mongering is bizarre enough to be believed by the rule of truth being stranger than fiction.

For those interested in the Soviet and okay with pretty visual violence imagery, definitely a recommendation.

I gave Martin Amis another chance. It started out like I had judged him wrong for The Pregnant Widow, but suddenly, in the last 50 – 60 pages it became a struggle again. Point of views swam and swapped without any tether or support, plot lines were deserted. And I was back being frustrated again.

Lionel Asbo is a walking ASBO (anti-social behavior order), viewed through the eyes of his cousin. They live in the trash can, society’s drain of London, surrounded by violence, disturbed families and a big need to fit in with the desperate ways. Things change, yet stay the same when Lionel wins a huge lottery prize. Millions.

Combine this with the story teller trying to break free from his surroundings, family matters, financial matters, violence and a love for the comfort of prison and you have something boiling. Sadly, by the end of the book, boiling over.